1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a control apparatus that performs various controls based on a computer program. Particularly, the present invention relates to a control apparatus, a control method and a computer program capable of shortening the developmental process and reducing the developmental load by enabling control that flexibly handles various required specifications and improving the reusability of programs by constructing the computer program so that various functions can be selected and combined based on the attributes thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, in various fields, a system has been used in which a control apparatus that performs various controls is provided with a communication function, a plurality of such control apparatuses are connected together and the control apparatuses are each assigned with a function, exchange data with each other and are caused to perform various processings in concert with each other. For example, in the field of vehicle-mounted LANs (local area networks) disposed in vehicles, ECUs (electronic control units) have a communication function, and are each caused to perform a specific processing and exchange data with each other, thereby implementing various function as a system (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-329578).
When a plurality of control apparatuses are caused to perform various processings in concert with each other, by constructing a structure that enables the control apparatuses to implement a similar function instead of causing each control apparatus to specialize in a specific function, the control apparatuses can be enabled to perform a processing while substituting for each other according to the setting. Specifically, a common function is separated from the application programs for causing the control apparatuses to implement a specific function, and is implemented by a program serving as a platform. Examples of the common function include the storage and update of data used for executing an application program and the processing of communication with other apparatuses.
Thereby, when the definition of the communication specification is changed, the platform program is changed, so that all the control apparatuses are caused to execute the changed platform program. In this case, it is unnecessary for the application program to cope with the change in communication specification, and communication with other control apparatuses can be implemented by a processing similar to before. Consequently, cumbersome management is unnecessary such as the preparation of various versions of application programs conforming to the difference in hardware. The application program may be constructed so as to purely implement a specific function, so that program reusability is increased.